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The Wicked Boy
- Author
- Kate Summerscale
- Narrator
- Ethan Reid
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 6 August 2026
- Run Time
- 8 hours 49 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- History, True crime
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What to expect
FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER
'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAY
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
On 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother Nattie set out from their East London home to watch a cricket match. Over the next ten days they spend extravagantly, visiting the theatre and eating out. The boys tell neighbours their father has gone to sea, and their mother to visit family in Liverpool. But when a strange smell begins to emanate from the house, the police are called. What they find throws the press into a frenzy – and the boys into a highly publicised trial.
‘An accomplished feat of research and storytelling . . . Wrapping controversial issues into a tense, fluent narrative’ HILARY MANTEL
'Riveting . . . Once again the author proves a subtle pathologist, her scalpel slicing away the skin of late-Victorian Britain’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR
‘A remarkably heartening story’ JOHN PRESTON, DAILY MAIL
‘An extraordinary book which will stay with you’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATOR
Note: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here
Critics Review
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No other writer could have made the Coombes case so fascinating and so vivid ... It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed
Spectator
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An extraordinary book which will stay with you
Daily Express
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Gripping... Summerscale is an exquisite storyteller. She is judicious in her use of detail, subtle in her unspoken connections between the past and the present.... This is the story of one wicked boy, but it is also a plea for compassion and empathy
The Times
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For her latest forensic investigation into the throttled passions of Victorian family life, Summerscale has moved forward 35 years to 1895 and turned away from the provincial bourgeois home to the working-class terraces of London’s East End ... [a] fine account ... subtle and confident
Guardian
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Unexpectedly touching... a fascinating account of a murder and its endless reverberations
Mail on Sunday
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As Kate Summerscale has proved before, she has a wonderfully sharp eye for stories which turn out not to be quite what they seem... a remarkably heartening story
Daily Mail
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Compelling... it gripped and stoked the national imagination, just as it surely will again
Evening Standard
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A work of social history that is as compassionate as it is absorbing... we almost feel we are wandering through these scenes ourselves
The Oldie
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Ultimately, the narrative is an exploration of Victorian attitudes to juvenile crime, and this pacy slice of social history acts as both hawk-eyed prosecution and gentle defence
Financial Times
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An absorbing account of fin-de-siecle Britain... [and] a powerful story about vulnerable and neglected children, both then and now
Daily Telegraph
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It’s a fascinating story and Summerscale tells it beautifully... [Her] sympathetic and intelligent study is full of social interest too. I can’t imagine that it could have been done better
Scotsman
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The challenge, to which Ms Summerscale rises wonderfully well, is to sustain the reader’s interest in him for the remaining 50-odd years of his life … Evocative … Through a mixture of serendipity and meticulous research, Ms Summerscale is able to add one final, heart-stopping twist
Economist
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Redemption comes twice in this account … An extremely touching twist … Scrupulous and occasionally startling
Observer
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Summerscale has performed a stunning post-mortem of “the horror” at number 35 … Talk about bringing history alive
Sunday Express
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It is above all her skill in creating a context for the crime which makes The Wicked Boy so readable … the sounds and smells of the East End docks, from which their father set sail, are evoked with particular vividness. More fascinating still are the ideas of the age ... An extraordinary tale of redemption
Tablet
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Her research is needle-sharp and her period detail richly atmospheric, but what is most heartening about this truly remarkable book is the story of real-life redemption that it brings to light
Sunday Times
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Kate Summerscale
- Narrator
- Ethan Reid
- Duration
- 8 hours 49 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 August 2026
- ISBN
- 9781037202506
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- History, True crime
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale, read by Ethan Reid.FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAYSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONOn 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother Nattie set out from their East London home to watch a cricket match. Over the next ten days they spend extravagantly, visiting the theatre and eating out. The boys tell neighbours their father has gone to sea, and their mother to visit family in Liverpool. But when a strange smell begins to emanate from the house, the police are called. What they find throws the press into a frenzy – and the boys into a highly publicised trial.‘An accomplished feat of research and storytelling . . . Wrapping controversial issues into a tense, fluent narrative’ HILARY MANTEL'Riveting . . . Once again the author proves a subtle pathologist, her scalpel slicing away the skin of late-Victorian Britain’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR‘A remarkably heartening story’ JOHN PRESTON, DAILY MAIL‘An extraordinary book which will stay with you’ DAILY EXPRESS‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATORNote: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here
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